Now I'm not too worried about this, but it was weird as hell. I was roolin back from Smackdown in Seattle last night and doing about 80 mph. Well I hit this freakin bump in the road (yeah the Juggalo Wagon is lowered about 2 inches, so the ride is stiffer than sotck, but not unbearable), and whammo, my car completely lost power for about half a second. The stereo flickered, my check engine light came on, air bag light, the RPM's dipped for just just as long as the powere was out, but then picked right back up. It was weird as ****, I pulled over and checked my battery and stuff, cause I redid a whole bunch of wiring there and was worried perhaps something came loose or whatnot, but all was solid and in place. So I closed it up and kept driving. Well about 40 miles down the road, I hit anoter huge freakin bump and whammo, the same power surge. Everyhting died for half a second, then continued running like nothing happened. I didn't even pull over that time. I was like "**** it, its nothing I can see in this light anyway".

Soo basically anyone ever heard of this, or have any idea what mighta happened to me? UFO's or some ****?

 

make sure your battery terminals are ultra tight if your gonna be smashing into ****, also makesure they have good contact (clean)
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BUY GRINDER

 

Yeah my termials are very clean, I made sure of that. I have those 24k plated Phoenix Gold battery terminals on top of my brand new yellow top Optima battery for my stereo setup. They tight as hell (tight as in really on there, not tight as in the phat terminology that some people use), so I don't think that's the problem. Like I said, it was just a brief flicker of complete power loss. And I really try not to smash into ****, its just that it was 2 in the morning, and when you're going 80 you really don't have time to react to every pot hole in the dark.

 

something is loose in there

 

Yeah, well I'll double check all my connections tomorrow. But I'm pretty sure everyhting is solid as far as the battery is concerned. Cause I got 1/0 gauge coming off the positive terminal with a 160 amp circuit breaker, and I have two runs of 1/0 gauge for ground. One goes to that stupid ground point on the strut tower thingie, and the other I grounded to my transmission case thingy. And all my connectors are those Phoenix Gold ones ( its all I use for my wiring and connectors), and they are super duper tight. Buuutttt I think I just thought of somehting. The stupid little freakin battery holder thing or whatever the hell you call it that goes across the battery to hold it down, battery tie-down or sumthin? Well it is extremely close to the big *** gold terminal I have on my positive post of my Optima. Perhaps the battery jarred a little and it grounded out temprairly on that tie-down thing and shorted for second? I'll check for arc marks tomorrow.

 

Your battery could have grounded out on the brace. Since the alternator provides power to the car when the engine is running, your battery terminal may have come in contact with the brace. I've had my battery temporarily short out on the intake in my CRX once, and it did the same thing. Just make sure the cables on the battery aren't loose, sometimes those aftermarket terminals do come loose, gold plated or not. To keep this from happening again, sloooooow downnnn.

 

I know it sounds odd, but this happened to my friend's focus. We were rollin back from the party store and...BAM....big pothole. His car completely shut off and would not come back on. Next morning we go back to look at it, and it was actually just a fuel cut off switch or something like that got triggered by the impact. One little flick and everything was ok again.

 

also check where the negative of the battery cable attaches to the frame of the car... if a little loose there it might have the same effect.

 

Sorry to hear about this. If you have done any rewiring, check the connectors that you've installed. On a previous car I owned, a connector was slightly damaged/poorly manufactured and when we hit a small bump experienced a temporary power cut off as well. The bad thing about it was that it caused our car's computer to lock down the car, allowing us to drive about 50 mph only until we fixed the problem and reset the computer...

It was a bugaboo finding which connector was the problem, so that's why I recommend starting with the ones that you installed first. (Especially if no one with factory only wiring and connections has not experienced this problem when hitting a bump.)

Good luck

Tetonman

 

i bet it bounced off your hood, or a strut bar, etc and shorted itself out for a sec.

ben

 

Maby your car is telling you to stop listening to ICP and taking it to wrestling...

 

Haha no. The Juggalo Wagon was maded to bump ICP, and go to wrestling events. Its part of what Juggalos live for.

And thanks for the suggestions guys. I popped the hood, and all the connections are solid, but there was the arc marks on the battery tie down. Dunno if its just coincidence, but I'm gonna go with this as the reason for the power outtage until it happens again. Cause I repositioned the positive terminal so it has a bit more space between it and the tie down. Hope this works, thanks for the suggestions, except the whole stop listening to ICP/wrestling stuff.

 

I popped the hood, and all the connections
are solid, but there was the arc marks on the battery tie down. Dunno if its just coincidence, but I'm gonna go with this as the reason for the power outtage until it happens again. Cause I repositioned the positive terminal so it has a bit more space between it and the tie down.
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You may wish to insulate the tie-down w/ electrical tape (duct tape may be too junky fer yer ride). That might help as well...

 

get some silicon gel or a silicon insulator and wrap it around the battery tie down. That should eliminate the possibility of that ever happening.

 

OR... find some of that plastic coating that they sell to insulate tool handles and dip the center of the cross brace in that... it usually comes in a couple of different colors and puts a nice tick insulative coat on. I used to have some of the stuff but for the life of me can not recall the name or brand.